The full title of this book by Richard Heinberg is
“Snake Oil: How Fracking’s False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future“.
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Four Stars. This means it is Good and Well Worth Reading.
Here is my book review.
Who is telling the truth on fracking?
The author’s previous book The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality shocked me to the core. I’d never previously identified the huge but untrue assumption in economic theory – natural resources are unlimited. This is a bit strange when I was taught that economics was all about the allocation of scarce resources.
That book encouraged me to read more about the theory of Peak Oil and in recent years, the price of oil has risen despite the economic recession. This gave credence to the concept as far as I was concerned.
But the popular media, politicians and the financial publications hail fracking and the oil and gas in the tar sands and shale as our saviour.
I was confused so when the author published this book, I had no hesitation in buying and reading it. He presents a strong case for fracking to be more of a distracting noise than the answer to our energy problems combined with some serious environmental issues from the process.
However I am still confused. I feel out of my comfort zone because I know little about the oil and gas industries.
Some clever people are saying fracking is good and safe. Other clever people are saying the opposite. It’s hard to know who to believe.
I have no doubt that we need to find efficient sources of new energy but we can’t be distracted by false promises which take away essential investment from better sources of energy generation.
This is too vital a topic to be pushed into action by manipulative propaganda.
I recommend you read this book as it presents a counter argument to all the positive hype we hear in favour of fracking. Even if you’re left confused like me, you can ask searching questions if fracking ever threaten to come to your area.
It is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
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